Chronos- Revue D’Histoire De L’Université De Balamand, Is a Bi-Annual Journal Published in Three Languages (Arabic, English and French)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Chronos- Revue d’Histoire de l’Université de Balamand, is a bi-annual Journal published in three languages (Arabic, English and French). It deals particularly with the History of the ethnic and religious groups of the Arab world. Journal Name: Chronos ISSN: 1608-7526 Title: Palmyra: a story of ruins, struggle(s) and beyond Author(s): Zeina Elcheikh To cite this document: Elcheikh, Z. (2019). Palmyra: a story of ruins, struggle(s) and beyond. Chronos, 39, 105-123. https://doi.org/10.31377/chr.v39i0.597 Permanent link to this document: https://doi.org/10.31377/chr.v39i0.597 Chronos uses the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA that lets you remix, transform, and build upon the material for non-commercial purposes. However, any derivative work must be licensed under the same license as the original. CHRONOS Revue d’Histoire de l’Université de Balamand Numéro 39, 2019, ISSN 1608 7526 PALMYRA: A STORY OF RUINS, STRUGGLE(S) AND BEYOND ZEINA ELCHEIKH1 Abstract For centuries, Palmyra and its ruins have fascinated archeologists, historians and artists. Yet, Palmyra has been a terrain for struggles as well. The emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a new actor in the Syrian conflict has pushed the damages of heritage monuments and sites to a greater extent, and has also added further ideological meanings to targeting cultural heritage. As a consequence, these atrocities have unleashed debates on a broader level. Several initiatives and projects worldwide have started to document the damages in Palmyra, and to prepare plans for its restoration. This paper focuses on the case of Palmyra, in the light of the atrocities committed by the ISIS militant in summer 2015. Destruction has become a part of Palmyra’s long history, and reconstructing the damages cannot erase the event that inflicted the destruction. “Palmyra review — smashing fable about power, ego and war”. I could hardly find better words to eloquently tell the story of Palmyra and its actual tragedy, than those of Lyn Gardner (2015), on the show called Palmyra at the Edinburgh Festival. The ruins’ oasis has always been an illustration of exchange between East and West, and a site “captured and recaptured by powers, commanders and armies, all seeking to show off their performances” (Yazdi and Massoudi 2017), that came from elsewhere, and contributed to Syria’s cultural wealth. On the other hand, they contributed in forming a clash and fusion of religions and cultures. 1 Stuttgart University. Chronos nº 39 - 2019 106 ZEINA ELCHEIKH Before 2011, the notion of heritage in Syria had been externally influenced. Archaeology has long been regarded by a large part of the society as a tool of cultural imperialism by the West, and later as an instrument in the service of the Syrian government to impose an official national identity, and to improve the tourism industry. Ever since the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, Syria’s heritage has been brought starkly into focus. The main parts of the conflict have not only caused damages to the built heritage, they have instrumentalized it too. Besides, illegal excavations and looting have reached a great extent. Moreover, the emergence of the ISIS, as a new actor in the conflict, has pushed the damage to a greater extent and given another ideological meaning to targeting cultural heritage. It has written a fatal chapter in the allegory of Palmyra. Despite the Western sanctions on the country and its people and the international community’s failure to put an end to the human tragedy of Syrians, voices have been raised to save the relics of the ancient times. It is not an overstatement to say that the whole world is talking about Syria’s heritage, and about recapturing the losses in Palmyra. But why would this necessarily become an international concern for a country ravaged by war and societal split and with urgent humanitarian needs? Whose heritage is it anyway? And who gets to decide its future? Between East and West: Heritage in a Globalized World Buildings and monuments have undergone changes throughout history. Even before the late-modern heritage boom, they were demolished, and also conserved (Harrison 2013: 203). They were torn down, altered, or had their function modified to fit a more recent purpose. The actual language of heritage that pervades the world is Western, for the most part. The ways of valuing the past that arose in Renaissance and Enlightenment Europe and were bolstered by nationalism and populism have spread worldwide (Lowenthal 1998:5, 13). Developed firstly in Europe, the modern study of archaeology was later exported throughout the world in the nineteenth century as part of colonialism (Byrne 1991: 269). Even the current international heritage conservation doctrines, and their adaptation to various non-Western countries, are in themselves postcolonial trends, or at least remnants PALMYRA: A STORY OF RUINS, STRUGGLE(S) AND BEYOND 107 of Western influence. For instance, the designers of the Venice Charter focused on two main facets: the great examples of European development that led to “the rise of civilization”; and the monuments that remained of the great “lost” civilization of the Near East (Sullivan 1993: 16, 24). The Middle Eastern monuments, that fascinated the West, have emerged as financial patrons for monument preservation as part of a ‘universal’ heritage, even when the natives of those countries-mainly Muslim, do not share the same recognition of the value of these monuments (Alsayyad 2008: 262). Moreover, Western models are financially and technically expensive, and are based on assumptions about priorities and concerns out of touch with the local conditions. Paradoxically, the new heritage management and the changes it seeks to impose, are themselves made necessary by the modernization or development of non-western countries, itself imported from the West (Sullivan 1993: 17). On the other hand, many Arab countries adopted a sort of ‘heritage business’, as tourism has been eagerly encouraged as a means of income, by turning the historical areas into museum-like or tourist destination (Rabbat 2016: 271). Yet, the great wealth of archaeological material in the region, promoted for the revenues from western tourism, is set within a context of an Islamic society, that does not sympathize, to some extent, with the West’s influence and intervention (Lafrenz Samuels 2009: 73). Many locals are unable of imagining an archaeological site or historical monument serving any purpose other than tourism and an attraction for foreigners. The success of preservation projects has not been necessarily an evidence of people’s awareness of their cultural heritage, rather a reflection of repressive authorities of corruptive, totalitarian governments (Ben Hamouche 2013: 194). Nevertheless, and to be fair enough, it does not mean that non- Western countries have no appreciation to their past(s). They do, but simply in a different way. The diversity of people in Syria, for instance, has produced a varied scenery of customs, oral traditions, traditional outfits, performing and culinary arts, traditional skills and handicrafts, practices of ideas and values shared by the different groups, and transmitted mainly through oral communication and practices. All this could be gathered under folklore or intangible heritage, that is strongly connected with believes and language. Even built heritage has been seen differently. Many historic centers remained inhabited and adapted to the ever-changing needs of the Chronos nº 39 - 2019 108 ZEINA ELCHEIKH societies. A fact that made many Syrian centers internationally known for being among the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world. Heritage, when sometimes taken for granted, seems to be most cherished when it is at risk of being lost, in terms of (physical) existence, or belonging and control. Yet, heritage preservation in peace circumstances, or following natural disasters, is not the same as in cases of armed conflict. The latter has an author, and usually involves an intention of horrifying, dominating or eliminating the opponent other(s). In the case of heritage destruction by armed conflicts and, especially, by rogue regimes, Western rhetorical approaches resort to an aesthetic revaluation of the ‘lost’ item. In such cases, all what the profession of restoration can provide or promise, can reach the extremes of their potentials (Bernbeck 2013). When destruction reaches places of particular significance and representation, it unleashes contested debates that exceed local clashes to reach a broader level. The case in Syria seems to be no exception. This work focuses mainly on Palmyra. I try by no means to cover all aspects of its long fabulous narrative, and I simply cannot. Volumes have been written about the ruins’ oasis and its history; thus, it serves no great purpose to go over that ground in details. However, it still warrants the following couple of words. Palmyra Between East and West If history can be described as the recorded past of humanity, then the Middle East has more history than any part of the world (Goldschmidt and Boum 2016: 12). In Syria, the cultural contributions from East and West spread over five thousand years. In the heart of its desert, Palmyra existed as an isolated oasis between two great empires; the Parthian (later the Persian) from the East, and the Roman from the West. It developed a community within an interactive setting of regional identities, some traces of which are among the most spectacular monuments of the ancient world. One of Asia’s most spectacular caravan cities, it revolved, as well as its history, around trade and being a commercial crossroad. For the water that it possessed, controlling Palmyra and its springs meant taking control over the trade routes (Ball 2010: 213-214). Different empires changed on PALMYRA: A STORY OF RUINS, STRUGGLE(S) AND BEYOND 109 it before it became under the Roman Empire in the first century AD.